the mind

• to have a mind/mental properties is to have a point of view on this world, to have subjectivity. this can be understood in terms of intentionality and consciousness.
• intentionality is the property that mental states have in being 'about' something. the intentional content of a mental state is the answer to the question 'what are you thinking?'
• one central feature of consciousness is its experiential quality, 'what it is like' to undergo a particular experience. this is given by a mental state's phenomenal properties.
• qualia are phenomenal properties, understood as intrinsic and non-intentional properties. whether this understanding of phenomenal properties is correct is an important debate in in the metaphysics of the mind.
• a substance is ontologically independent, not characterising or depending upon another entity for it's existence.
• a central question in metaphysics of mind is 'is the mind a substance?' substance dualism claims that minds and bodies are distinct substances.
• if the mind is not a substance, and the only kind of substance is physical, then 'the mind' is composed of mental properties (properties of intentionality and consciousness) possessed by a physical substance, such as the brain or person.
• mind-brain type identity theory claims that mental properties are actually types of physical property, namely neurological properties.
• property dualism claims that mental properties are not physical properties, and are not dependant on physical properties.
• eliminativist materialism claims that some mental properties, as we usually think of them, don't exist.
• philosophical behaviourism claims talk of the mind should be understood in terms of behaviour (hard) and dispositions to behave (soft).
• functionalism argues that mental properties are to do with how the mind or brain or person 'works', not to do with what they are made of.
• all or at least some mental states have phenomenal properties
• qualia is defined as intrinsic and non-intentional phenomenal properties that are introspectively accessable
• some, not all, philosopher refer to these phenomenal properties as qualia.
• all or at least some mental states have intentional properties/intentionality.
• substances possess properties and persist through change.